Library Research

The library is a system. It contains tools. And with any set of tools, the results you get depend on the skills of the user! Here is where you can learn how to make the system work quickly and easily for you.

You will learn:

how to focus in on your research topic

how to decide where to look

how to get the item

when to ask for help

Are you like this?

A quick poll at the University of Texas reveals some clues about many students' research habits:

What if you've come to the Library to find a book. Instead of finding books neatly on the shelves, they're sitting in boxes piled everywhere. Even worse, the boxes don't have labels to say what is inside. It would be impossible to find anything.

Organization helps make things easier to find.

Librarians catalog and classify books to make them easier to find.

Article databases allow you to search for particular newspaper, journal and popular magazine articles.

The Library web site gathers for you - in a logical way - many of these resources.

Don't be shy. Check with a librarian or your instructor if you are new to the research process! See you at the reference desk in the Library or call us at 682-1611, x7251.

Acknowledgements

Many, many websites were reviewed in the developing of this project. For use of their source material, thanks goes to: